Pie Lady wrote:I was eating out with Mr. Pie this morning at The Bungalow, where the owner doubles as the waitress. She had one of those fancy iPad checkout systems, and apparently there is no way to add the tip, which I think was hooey. She said she did not want a tip because she was the owner. She insisted, being a stubborn Irish girl; I mentioned my husband was also Irish and left $5. Has anyone heard of this before? I heard that when you go to a salon and the owner does your hair, you don't have to tip, but I never thought about it for restaurants. Thoughts?
Mikelipino wrote:Here's an interesting series written by Jay Porter on running both a tip and "tipless" (actually a service charge system) restaurant in San Diego.
http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observa ... -overview/
mike
pairs4life wrote:The recourse most commonly used in these states is the “tipout”. Here the servers just give a portion of their tips to the kitchen, usually as part of a cultural expectation created within the restaurant. The problems with depending on a voluntary tipout to equal out the pay on the team are:
Some servers may decide to withhold a tipout, in a sense cheating the system, and the employers is precluded from redressing this; and
Servers may use that option of withholding their tipout, to extract special favors from the kitchen regardless of whether those favors hurt other guests or other servers.
Pie Lady wrote:What about buffets where you get it yourself at a fountain, like Country Buffet? I think we do a buck or two.
Culinaria wrote:Pie Lady wrote:What about buffets where you get it yourself at a fountain, like Country Buffet? I think we do a buck or two.
If I'm not being served by anyone at any point...then I don't leave a tip.
I mean, why leave a tip if you're not being served by a human being?
Leaving a Tip: A Custom in Need of Changing?
ronnie_suburban wrote:Culinaria wrote:Pie Lady wrote:What about buffets where you get it yourself at a fountain, like Country Buffet? I think we do a buck or two.
If I'm not being served by anyone at any point...then I don't leave a tip.
I mean, why leave a tip if you're not being served by a human being?
Sometimes the human beings bus the tables and do other nice things for you, other than serving. I remember taking my son to a local buffet when he was little and the folks who worked there were very kind to him and to us in all sorts of ways. I always felt good about leaving them tips and I'm guessing they were happy to receive them.
=R=
JoelF wrote:But you've hit the nail on the head: They had specific, direct interaction with you and your son. If they're just doing the basic job, I don't see the point of a tip. I have the same problem with hotel housekeeping: A clean room is what I paid for. If I never see you, and you don't interact with me in any way... what's the tip for?
Dave148 wrote:Leaving a Tip: A Custom in Need of Changing?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/dinin ... .html?_r=0
Pie Lady wrote:Some places pool them and the tips go to everybody...correct me if I'm wrong.
rickster wrote:Dave148 wrote:Leaving a Tip: A Custom in Need of Changing?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/dinin ... .html?_r=0
Interesting point in the article about the disparity in compensation between back of the house and front of the house. Why does the waiter deserve a tip and the line cook have to make do with meager hourly wages?
An updated tax rule is causing restaurants to rethink the practice of adding automatic tips to the tabs of large parties.
Starting in January, the Internal Revenue Service will begin classifying those automatic gratuities as service charges—which it treats as regular wages, subject to payroll tax withholding—instead of tips, which restaurants leave up to the employees to report as income.
In a sweeping change to how its restaurant employees are paid, the Union Square Hospitality Group will eliminate tipping at Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe and its 11 other restaurants by the end of next year, the company’s chief executive, Danny Meyer, said on Wednesday.
justjoan wrote:reading between the lines of the article on the radler (a favorite place of mine), it seems that the kitchen staff will be getting a share of the tacked on service charge. this still is the dark and dirty problem with restaurants, IMO. the people who carry out the chef's wishes; who work in hot and frenzied conditions; who actually feed us- are underpaid and under appreciated. so if this new policy catches on, i think it's a tremendously positive step forward. danny meyer clearly had this in mind when he eliminated tips. he says in the above article that the wages for kitchen staff has risen about 25% in the last 30 YEARS, while servers wages have gone up 200%. i hope this spreads like wildfire across the country.
Roger Ramjet wrote:justjoan wrote:reading between the lines of the article on the radler (a favorite place of mine), it seems that the kitchen staff will be getting a share of the tacked on service charge. this still is the dark and dirty problem with restaurants, IMO. the people who carry out the chef's wishes; who work in hot and frenzied conditions; who actually feed us- are underpaid and under appreciated. so if this new policy catches on, i think it's a tremendously positive step forward. danny meyer clearly had this in mind when he eliminated tips. he says in the above article that the wages for kitchen staff has risen about 25% in the last 30 YEARS, while servers wages have gone up 200%. i hope this spreads like wildfire across the country.
Means nothing without knowing what the pre-increase wages were. Server salaries are still below minimum wage in most of the US. Not so for kitchen staff. And now kitchen staff wants part of the servers' tips?
Anybody who doubts the relative importance of FOH and BOH should sit down with a beverage and spend some time reading Yelp reviews. A clear majority of negative reviews are based on perceived FOH issues.
botd wrote:
Except A) that is anemic wage growth in any profession (far less than inflation over the same period) and B) you obviously didn't read the article where it plainly states that wait staff are making far more than kitchen staff due to tips. .